Enterprise Equity makes 7x return on the sale of its Keelvar shareholding
26th May 2020
Following recent big returns to EEVC from the sale of SensL to ON Semi, and Phorest to SGE, EEVC delivers another very significant return with Keelvar.
Enterprise Equity (“EEVC”), one of Ireland’s most successful Early Stage investors, has sold its full shareholding in Irish company Keelvar, a sourcing software vendor, specializing in Advanced Sourcing Optimization and Sourcing Automation for enterprise procurement.
The sale is part of a significant $18m Series A investment in Keelvar.
Enterprise Equity first invested in Keelvar in 2008 via its seed capital fund (“AIBSCF”) and EEVC has generated a 7x return on its investment.
Frank Walsh, a Partner in EEVC, said:
“Keelvar is at the forefront of procurement automation. Leveraging the team’s expertise in AI, the Company has developed market leading optimisation and automation technology. This revolutionary technology is recognised by some of the world’s largest companies who trust Keelvar to manage huge order quantities. To date, Keelvar has optimised over $100 BILLION of spend for companies such as Siemens, Coca-Cola, Primark and ABB. ”
“The recent completed Series A was a tremendous achievement. The Company raised a large Series A, completely refreshed its shareholder-base, and delivered a 7x return to its early investors. A testament to the quality of the business and the fortitude of the incoming investors. This was an excellent result for the AIB Seed Capital Fund and a great example of how Seed Capital Funds and Later Stage Funds can coexist profitably in a great company. We wish Keelvar and its new investors every success in the future.”
The sale of Enterprise Equity’s shareholding in Keelvar follows other recent returns on its investments in SensL Technologies and Phorest, both of which were 10x returns for Enterprise Equity.
Prior successful exits by Enterprise Equity include Movidius, the company that develops microchips to handle advanced vision processing duties in various devices, which was acquired by Intel ; EMBO Medical was acquired by Bard ; and Celtrak was acquired by Ingersoll Rand.
EEVC has invested in 88 internationally orientated early stage companies in areas including B2B SaaS, Connectivity, Fintech and Healthtech. It has offices in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and San Francisco.
